Hi All,
Years ago, I saw this guitar in a pawn store for $100.
Neck-Through, straight and true, light as a feather. Just so damn nice to play too.
Kawai dropped out of guitar manufacture in the mid 80's, but judging by this instrument, they were made to a high standard. Indeed the Kawai F series alembic copies are becoming a sought after bang-for-your-buck bass. The Z-II-B is far rarer it seems, I have trawled the web and I can find almost no info on it, beyond a catalog page (see below).
Maple 1pc neck, alder body. Unsure about the thin sections between neck and body, any ideas?
Anyways, this one is in need of some love so I thought it would be a good one to dip my toes into the waters of refurb/building, something I have wanted to do for a while. I was Mega inspired by DaveRhys's Roadstar rebuild;http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/restoration-roadstar-ii-hell-869914/
So, the plan;
Remove all hardware and elecs. The pots are on their last legs, the Pups are a bit tinny for my tastes. The tuners are mismatched and the bridge corroded.
The body is chipped, dinged and scratched and I am not a huge fan of the sickly blue sunburst. I'll strip the bass, then either TruOil or MinMax wipe on poly. Any recommendations on this score are welcome.
I am also thinking of a including a graphic to reflect the Japanese origin of the bass. Think 'Japanese woodblock' or 'watercolor on bamboo'. My VFX supe has a kickstarter project he is about to launch - A Laser engraver/cutter that goes all the way to 1.5 W. It operates up to A3 size, and has software to use Illustrator/CAD/Vector files. Work really nicely, so I might do some tests on scrap. I was thinking a light laser for the detail and very diluted dye for the Color. On top of this would go TruOil or MinMax.
Let the fun Begin
Brochure
Original
Years ago, I saw this guitar in a pawn store for $100.
Neck-Through, straight and true, light as a feather. Just so damn nice to play too.
Kawai dropped out of guitar manufacture in the mid 80's, but judging by this instrument, they were made to a high standard. Indeed the Kawai F series alembic copies are becoming a sought after bang-for-your-buck bass. The Z-II-B is far rarer it seems, I have trawled the web and I can find almost no info on it, beyond a catalog page (see below).
Maple 1pc neck, alder body. Unsure about the thin sections between neck and body, any ideas?
Anyways, this one is in need of some love so I thought it would be a good one to dip my toes into the waters of refurb/building, something I have wanted to do for a while. I was Mega inspired by DaveRhys's Roadstar rebuild;http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/restoration-roadstar-ii-hell-869914/
So, the plan;
Remove all hardware and elecs. The pots are on their last legs, the Pups are a bit tinny for my tastes. The tuners are mismatched and the bridge corroded.
The body is chipped, dinged and scratched and I am not a huge fan of the sickly blue sunburst. I'll strip the bass, then either TruOil or MinMax wipe on poly. Any recommendations on this score are welcome.
I am also thinking of a including a graphic to reflect the Japanese origin of the bass. Think 'Japanese woodblock' or 'watercolor on bamboo'. My VFX supe has a kickstarter project he is about to launch - A Laser engraver/cutter that goes all the way to 1.5 W. It operates up to A3 size, and has software to use Illustrator/CAD/Vector files. Work really nicely, so I might do some tests on scrap. I was thinking a light laser for the detail and very diluted dye for the Color. On top of this would go TruOil or MinMax.
Let the fun Begin
Brochure
Original
